


All Better

by aperfectpearl (dimensionhoppingrose)



Series: Her Son, My Son [5]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Baby Steven, Light Angst, Mourning, Other, Pearl is Steven's mom before she knows she's steven's mom, Pre-Canon, still missing Rose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 03:35:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18380150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dimensionhoppingrose/pseuds/aperfectpearl
Summary: Pearl is determined not to have anything to do with Rose's baby. The Crystal Gems aren't hisfamily, and there's no point in acting otherwise.(In which Pearl is stubborn but Steven being cute wins out in the end)





	All Better

**Author's Note:**

> (Nothing important in this note, just me being sappy about family and where the inspiration for this story came from. Feel free to skip.)
> 
> So weirdly this was inspired by my niece and nephew and children's uninhibited ability to just *love*. I met my wife's niece (codename: Buttons) and nephew (Codename: Monkey) when she was turning six (we visited for her birthday), and he was around seven months old, and I was the weird stranger their aunt brought home. She's eight now and he just turned three. They were here with my MiL and SiL for a few days, and it was just... mind blowing how much has changed it such little time. Buttons has consistently called Auntie Sam for about the last year more or less, and I'm the coolest aunt because I love the same things she loves (video games, minecraft, pokemon, etc.). Monkey called me Auntie Sam for the first yesterday, and I almost cried because a) that's the first time someone other than my wife has been Auntie and b) that was the first time he said my name (my in-laws have a dog named Sam and only one thing can be named Sam in his tiny world so it tripped him up for a while). I get big hugs and kisses from both of them, Buttons loves playing video games with me, and Monkey even sat in my lap for like 20 minutes yesterday (he's very touch adverse, especially with people he doesn't see day-to-day).
> 
> And it's incredible to me that they can just... love me, just like that. They live in Kentucky and we live in Missouri, it's not like I see them often. They don't *have* to call me Auntie Sam, no one forces them. Buttons was confused for a long time about having two aunts (she was five when we started dating, and they explained that her aunt was gay, and she was fine, she just didn't know it could work that way), and Monkey was just a baby, so of course he didn't understand anything that was going on. But they both accept me as part of their family and love me just like they love my wife, and yeah, I might have cried a little at some point thinking about how wonderful they both are and how they both just let me part of their family.
> 
> So tl;dr, this story was inspired by my niece and nephew, and how easily children can love someone. I married into a really wonderful family.

“Come on Pearl, he’s squishy. It’s fun!”

Pearl was sitting on the warp pad, her elbows on her knees, chin her hands. Greg was visiting the temple with Steven; Amethyst and even Garnet were cooing over him as he babbled and waved his arms.

“Pass.” Pearl’s eyes were on the ground, doing everything she could not to look at the baby. The gems hadn’t seen him since the disastrous kidnapping attempt during the snowstorm. She assumed Greg had brought him now, when the weather was a bit better, as part of their agreement to work together. Pearl hadn’t forgotten that promise. She would help _Steven_ learn about his gem heritage and his powers, if he had any – and that was a big _if_.

That didn’t mean she had to _fuss_ over him and play with him like Amethyst and Garnet were doing. He wasn’t Rose. Pearl didn’t have any emotional attachment to him. She planned on keeping it that way.

Greg was sitting on the ground with his legs crossed, Steven in his lap; his eyes moved to the gem on the war pad, and he leaned over to murmur to Garnet, “Is um… is Pearl okay?” They didn’t get along but he didn’t want her to hate him, or Steven. Especially Steven.

“She will be,” Garnet said with a certain amount of confidence in her voice. “She isn’t right now, though.”

“Come on Steven, you can walk, it’s easy!” Amethyst shape-shifted down to Steven’s size, showing off her amazing ability to walk. Steven wiggled and grunted, trying to get up.

“He’s still a bit too young for that,” Greg said, chuckling. “He’s getting crawling down pretty well and he’s trying to stand, but he’s not there yet.”

“Aw man.” Amethyst flopped down, crossing her tiny arms. “What fun is that?”

Steven giggled and clapped, tiny fingers reaching out. Amethyst changed back and offered him a finger. He took it happily, shaking it around. “I was thinking I could bring him around once a week or something,” Greg continued. “Get him used to all of you and, you know, keeping an eye on him if magic things happen.”

“He’s gotta learn how to walk, first,” Amethyst said.

“He’s trying, give him a break.”

Pearl stood, her hands clasped behind her back as she turned and walked back into the temple without a word. Having to see that baby once a week? Great. But she already knew Garnet would agree.

Greg sighed, watching Pearl go. “Ignore her,” Amethyst said, waving a hand. “She’s been all moody and stuff for months now. She yelled at me for no reason the other day.”

“No, she yelled at you because we could hear your music throughout the entire temple,” Garnet corrected patiently.

“Yeah, but she totally overreacted. She threw a spear through my radio!”

“You’re lucky that’s all she put a spear through. Stop antagonizing her.”

“She needs to get over herself.”

Steven waved his arms, protesting the sudden lack of attention, and everyone quickly turned back to him.

* * *

 

“I just don’t see why they need to come here _every week_. Personally, if I never see Greg again, then great.”

Ruby wanted so badly to yell at Pearl. Sapphire did her best to put out that particular fire. “It’s important for us to see how he grows,” Garnet said patiently. “There’s never been anyone like him--”

“Exactly. So why waste our time?”

“Because he’s already shown once that his gem has _some_ power, even if we don’t know what it is.”

Pearl sighed, looking up at the ceiling. They were in the bubble room, far away from Amethyst, who no doubt would have something to say about Pearl’s attitude. And Garnet didn’t have the energy to referee a fight. “I thought you’d jump on the chance to see Steven again after everything that happened,” Garnet said after a moment of silence. “You usually love a good mystery.”

“He’s not exactly a _mystery_. He’s an oddity if anything.” Her eyes traced the bubbles, identifying each gem, whether they were Crystal Gems or Homeworld. A Topaz on Homeworld’s side. Biggs. Tiger’s Eye. A Homeworld Citrine.

“Either way, he’s something we need to worry about. Who knows what powers he has?”

“Right now he has nothing.” Pearl stood, stretching her arms. “So what’s the point?”

She was still mourning for Rose. They all were, in a way. But Garnet and Amethyst had managed to find a coping mechanism in taking care of Steven and helping him learn. Pearl wasn’t quite there yet, and it was making her irrational. Any other time, Garnet knew Pearl would have seen the absolute absurdity in her current state of mind.

“You can’t lock yourself away forever,” Garnet said quietly. “Sooner or later, you have to find a way to move on. You know that’s what Rose would have wanted.”

“Who cares what Rose would have wanted.” Pearl’s voice was sharp. “She’s _gone_ , as you feel the need to keep reminding me.”

“Pearl-”

 

“I’m going.” She started out of the room. “I don’t need this lecture again, Garnet.”

No. No she didn’t. Garnet had to admit that much. Telling her the same things over and over wasn’t going to do any good. Time was the only thing that could heal.

Garnet was just afraid that was going to take too long.

* * *

Greg looked around the temple uncertainly. He’d been there for nearly twenty minutes, and the gems still hadn’t come out. Maybe they were off on a mission somewhere. Steven babbled and cooed, waving his arms at Greg, who smiled and kissed the top of his head.

“I’m sure they’ll be back soon, schtuball. We’ll just give them a few more minutes, yeah?”

Steven clapped his hands in what Greg assumed was agreement, and he sat on a rock, bouncing Steven on his knee. It had been a few months since they’d started these weekly visits, and Greg was surprised at how well it was going. Mostly. Pearl still refused to get within ten feet of Steven. Garnet kept saying it would work out, but Greg was really starting to doubt that.

The warp pad lit up, and Greg stood, putting on a smile. He was in a place that partially blocked him from view, and he really didn’t want to surprise them, especially if they had just come from a fight. Pearl had more than proven she could kill him without hesitation when he’d decided to sneak up on her one night while she was sitting on the beach. Lesson learned.

“...hell were you thinking?!” Greg heard Amethyst half yelling as the light faded away. He stopped, looking around the corner. They all looked a little worse for wear – the ends of Amethyst’s hair were burned, her face scattered with scrapes and bruises. Garnet’s visor was cracked, her knuckles similarly burned. He’d seen them come out of a few rough fights before, but they’d always had Rose to heal them. He felt guilty as he wondered what they were going to do now…

Then his eyes found Pearl.

She was being half supported by Garnet, her right leg twisted at an odd angle, expression pulled tight as she tried not to let the others see she was in pain. Her arms and neck were peppered with what looked like thin scars running up and down in a spiral, as if a rope had been wrapped around them. Her broken leg was in a similar state.

“Gave Garnet a chance to poof it, didn’t I?” Pearl muttered as Garnet gently lowered her to sit on the warp pad.

“Since when do _you_ play live bait?”

“Amethyst, leave it alone,” Garnet said firmly. There was something frightening about the pull of her lips.

“Why should I? She’s always lecturing me about _strategy_ and _thinking before I act_ , but she just-”

“Hello Greg,” Garnet said loudly, and Amethyst immediately snapped her mouth shut; she and Pearl raised their heads to see Greg half out of his hiding spot, and he grimaced, waving a weak hand.

“Uh, hi. Sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude-”

“We forgot you were visiting today,” Garnet said, stepping off the warp pad. “Our apologies, there was something we needed to deal with.”

“Yeah, I can see that. Do you guys… I mean, are you okay? Without Rose-”

“We’ll live,” Garnet said simply. “Perhaps unwillingly, in some cases.”

Pearl’s face flushed a vibrant blue. “I don’t like what you’re implying.”

“What makes you think I’m talking about you?”

Pearl looked away, scowling, and set to work with straightening her leg the best she could do. “Knock it off, you’re going to make it worse,” Amethyst grumbled.

“I know how to set a leg, Amethyst. You think I haven’t done it before?”

The tension was almost suffocating. “I should probably go, huh...” Greg said slowly.

“Possibly, yes,” Pearl said testily, but Garnet cut her off.

“No, it’s all right. I think we could all use a little cheering up. Today was rough.”

“Yeah, I can tell. Are you guys okay?”

“All right, all right,” Pearl hissed. She and Amethyst had been muttering to each other. “Just hold my foot, okay?”

“You’re insane,” Amethyst grumbled, but she knelt down and held Pearl’s foot while Pearl carefully, painstakingly tried to set her leg. “Why don’t you just poof? Seems a lot easier than trying to piece yourself back together.”

“It’s just a broken leg, it’s not like I’m putting pieces of my gem in a jar."

“We’ll all live,” Garnet said again. “How’s Steven doing?”

“Oh, he’s good!” Greg said, happy for the change of subject. “He’s almost got walking down, look.”

He set Steven down; the child wavered for a moment, tottering back and forth before finding his balance. “Aw, cool!” Amethyst said happily. “Finally, we can have some fun!”

“He’s not that great yet.” Greg chuckled. “But he’s getting there.”

Pearl made a faint, pained noise as she finally twisted her leg back into place, massaging it with a grimace. Amethyst glowed for a moment before shifting into a small purple dog and sprinted forward, running around Steven and barking. Steven giggled, waving his hands, and Amethyst sat still so he could pet her. She only kept his attention for a moment before it was drawn to Pearl, who was still looking at her leg, rubbing it carefully. He squealed and stumbled forward, arms reaching out.

“Hey, where are you going?” Amethyst complained. Pearl looked up as tiny hands rested on her leg, and Steven pressed a kiss to it, beaming.

“A’ betta!” he declared proudly. It wasn’t, of course, but Pearl wasn’t really paying attention. She was staring at Steven, eyes wide, expression surprisingly soft.

“Yeah,” she said slowly, stretching her injured leg out with a quiet groan. “All better.”

Steven giggled, falling into her, and Pearl caught him automatically, slim arms wrapping his tiny body.

“Really?” Amethyst huffed, changing back and crossing her arm arms. “I’ve been playing with him every time he visits, and all Pearl has to do is get herself beaten up for attention?”

“Shush,” Garnet said, ruffling Amethyst’s hair. Greg watched, mouth hanging open, as Pearl adjusted to scoop Steven up. He giggled, clapping his hands together. And, amazingly, Pearl smiled, curling her good leg to set him in her lap.

It wasn’t _all_ better. Not yet. But this, Garnet thought with a satisfied smile, was a good beginning.


End file.
